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Sunday, April 24, 2011

Happy Easter everyone! The weather today turned out to be pretty nice so Sydney and I headed outside for our 45 minute ride to be followed by a 20 minute transition run. This was my first ride outside this year and I have to admit I was a little nervous. I've become pretty comfortable on the trainer (though bored some days for sure) and was wary about what things would be like outside with the elements coming into play.

Fortunately it turned out pretty good. I was dressed properly so didn't freeze or overheat. The traffic was really light (I guess everyone was at church?) so not alot of cars buzzing by. And, by some miracle the gale force winds we've been experiencing here were alot calmer!

I did have a hard time keeping my heartrate in zone 2 which is where I was supposed to do this ride. I wasn't feeling overly taxed but for some reason as soon as I would get my cadence anywhere near 90 rpm it would shoot up to high zone 3.

I spent some time in aero as well. My goal this year is to really get comfortable in that position because until now I've felt really out of control in my bars. I do think they need to come back a touch still as I still feel a little too stretched out which messes up my centre of gravity and my control of the bike. The problem is that I'm so damn small that the bars have to come back so far that I don't have enough sticking out the front to attach my aero bottle to and still have something to hold on to. I was really hoping to use the aero bottle this year because I have a hard time getting bottles in and out of the cages. Again, because I'm so small and the frame of my bike is so wee regular bottles are too long to fit into my bottle cages and I really have to fight to get them out. Even the smaller bottles are tough to maneuver and I'm not nearly coordinated enough to wrangle with them while maintaining any semblance of speed. As a result I ended up not drinking enough on rides last year. I've though about getting one of those seat post holders but have heard that they tend to launch the water bottles if the road isn't perfectly smooth. Oy vey!

What's a 5' tall girl to do? Suggestions are welcome although I've already thought that this makes a great case for me to get a tri bike. ;-)

Friday, April 22, 2011

Click on over to Shut Up and Run and check out the cool giveaway she has going on right now. I would really love the "I Am Not Afraid" necklace by Sporty Girl Jewelry (ahem - Paul) Read her blog too. She's a semi-okay runner :-) with a funny sense of humour and lots of good potty stories related to her running.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

1. I am sick AGAIN! So tired of this sinus infection, nasty cough thing I've been battling for three of the last four weeks. I finally saw my GP about it today because it's become obvious I require some professional intervention to be rid of this once and for all. She prescribed antibiotics (she doesn't do that alot) and a nasal spray. She also reviewed my blood test results from the bloodwork I had done a couple of months ago. Her office had called me the day after I had it done and advised that I needed to start taking iron supplements. Turns out that my iron was 2. Normal is 80. Ooops.

2. I'm typing this post on my new shiny MacBook. Love it! My HP bit it last week. A problem with the videocard overheating regularly and finally frying the motherboard. This last HP was a replacement that HP sent me after months of fighting with them about my previous HP biting it for THE SAME REASON! This time around HP is not acknowledging any problems and not extending any warranties. The Internets are full of people ranting about this as it's fried ALOT of laptops. I don't have the time or patience to fight with HP again and am officially done with them. I have gone to Team Apple.

3. I swam 2,400 meters on Tuesday. I went to a Master's swim in the evening instead of my usual morning swim at the pool with no Coach to do the workout Coach Mary sent me. I feel pretty good about finishing that workout as 2,400 is the longest swim workout I've done so far. I got home really late though - 10:30 p.m. which is WAY past my bedtime. This is the only workout I've done this week as well, and it's not looking good for tomorrow's ride because have I mentioned the I'm sick AGAIN. Grrrr! Cross your fingers for me that I'm feeling up to the 1.5 hour run on my schedule for Saturday.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

My laptop has finally thrown in the towel so I'm updating from the iPhone. Not the most ideal but I hope you'll bear with me until the laptop situation is rectified.

I ran my second race of the season today - the Southern Footprints Half Marathon. This race could also have been called the Wizard of Oz Half Marathon. The wind was CRAZY!! I'm not a big person and there were gusts that had me working not to blow over. It was mostly a cross wind until mile 12 when we turned toward the lake again and it was head on. I wanted to cry here, and stop. Winds stir up the demons in my pysche. On the bike and on the run nothing makes me doubt myself more. I was proud of myself today though because I beat those demons down and kept at it. I kept repeating what Coach Mary said in her race plan - "It's SUPPOSED to hurt!". I even managed to pass two people in the section with the highest wind. One I passed going uphill(!!) about 500m from the finish line. I had been targeting this girl for half the race! That was very satisfying. :-)

At the turn into the finishing chute all of my awesome friends were there cheering me on (the one advantage to being the slowest of the group - lots of support at the finish) and making so much noise the announcer even commented about my fan club. My mom and Dad and niece came out
too which was awesome. I love that she's interested in racing and watching me race.

All of this lead up to say that I finished in 2:07:43. A PB!! I'm very excited about that because the conditions made this race SO HARD but I was able to gut it out. I was still bottom half of my age group but it was a small field (152 total runners) and I learned to stop worrying about what everyone else was doing.

Other than the lack of water stations (I was so dehydrated by the end) this was a great race. I like the timing of it so early in the season and the course is really nice going along the lake, into the national park and through trails. The wind sucked and the rollers on the trail
part were more difficult than expected but definitely a two thumbs up race. The buffet lunch
afterwards was inside the host hotel and we had a chance to hang out and chat and cheer for
our good friend Dawn who won overall female - she is a STAR!

Well, this has taken an inordinate amount of time to type up on the phone so I'll end it here. I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend and good luck to all the people I know both in blogland and in real life doing Boston on Monday. I will be tracking you all and sending speedy thoughts for a fabulous race. Cheers!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

I've been a bit absent from the Internets. Things both personally and professionally have been in a state of flux for the last week or so (nothing BAD mind you, just different) and as a result I've retreated into myself a bit. It's kind of a coping mechanism that I have in times like this.

The constant has been training. March saw more red (workouts not completed) boxes in my Training Peaks than any other month so far because of TWO(!!!) bouts of illness. I hate the red boxes. They mock me. Despite this I find myself really dedicated to getting the workouts done. It kills me to not complete a scheduled swim or run or bike and usually takes Coach Mary telling me to STOP and REST for me to actually stop and rest.

And now, although I'm loathe to report numbers that are actually less than last month, here is the 411 on how my March went:

Swimming - 9,800 metres in 5.25 hours (18.21% of my training time). That is 2,500 m less than last month and I was devastated when I saw this. I must say though, when I have a sinus infection - and did I mention I had TWO(!!!) in March - the LAST thing I want to do is swim.

Biking - 11.1 hrs on the trainer as it appears that it will be winter here for the rest of time (33.67% of training time). This is, weirdly, exactly what I completed last month.

Running - 79.15 kilometres (including the 5k race) in 8.72 hours (26.68% of my training time). That is approximately 2 kms more than last month in about .3 hrs less time. Hey, I'll take any victory I can get.

Other - 6.5 hours (19.8% of training time). This includes yoga and volleyball.

Overall not an awful month but I'm looking forward to picking it up in April. How were your months?

Also! A shout out to Matt at Go Smitty Go!. He's racing a half marathon this weekend! You've trained hard and will kill it!